Thailand’s Public Assembly Act 2015: Procedures on Notification of Public Assembly, Authorised Equipments for Crowd Control, and Limitation of Utilizing the Sound Amplification Equipments
Although the Public Assembly Act has been enforced since 13 August 2015, there was no practical guideline in detail. On 3 November 2015,the Prime Minister, as the caretaker of the Act, issued Announcements of the Office of Prime Minister onregulations for public assembly notification, and on crowd control tools for public assembly. The two announcements state the following guidelines:
- The written notification of public assembly can be submitted either directly to the authority or the competent officer, or via fax, or via email.
- The authority, after receiving notification, should proceed the notification to the competent officer, who is the chief of the police station in the venue, for consideration.
- When the competent officer is informed of the public assembly, the officer shall check the notification and reply with a summary of key elements of the Act to the informant within 24 hours since the notification is received. An advice on crowd management in a public assembly may be added for the informant to conduct or adjust in time.
- If the informant was not able to submit the notification within 24 hours before the event, the informant shall notify his intention with an application for extension of such period to the police commander of Bangkok Metropolitan in charge of the area in Bangkok, or to the provincial police commander in other provinces.
- The notification of public assembly must include the information of the informant, the purpose of the assembly, activities, details of the event, and list of coordinators.
- The list of crowd control equipments contain 48 tools, such as the protective equipment for the officers, barrier for blocking the assembly and protecting places, crowd dispersing devices, weapon detectors, crowd control vehicles, Long Range Acoustic Device, etc.
On 2 October 2015, the Royal Thai Police released an announcement on the volume limitation of amplifier in public assembly. The use of amplifier must not exceed common limitation, the loudest not more than 115 db(A) and the 24 hrs average not more than 70 db(A). The use of amplifier in a public assembly that disturbs other is prohibited, the volume of disturbance equals 10 db(A).
However, there is no announcement about “plan or guideline on crowd control or management” from the Royal Thai Police with approval of the Cabinets which aims to handle the assembly in case that the crowd refuse to terminate by the order of the competent officer in charge of public assembly under the Public Assembly Act 2015. As of 6 November 2015, only these three procedural guidelines under the Public Assembly Act have been released.
For more information:
Public Assembly Act 2015 (unofficial Translation):
http://lawdrafter.blogspot.com/2015/08/translation-thai-public-assembly-act-of.html
(In Thai) Announcement of the Office of Prime Minister on regulations for public assembly notification
(In Thai) Announcement of the Office of Prime Minister on crowd control equipments for public assembly
(In Thai) Royal Thai Police announcement on volume limitation of amplifier in public assembly.
THAI LAWYERS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS 